Daloy ng Paglikha: Letting creativity flow with presence, curiosity and joy
How might flow allow you live your days more meaningfully?
Hello, mga ka-Ugnayan!
It’s me again, Jen, the Ugnayan duo’s resident tagapagpadaloy (Tagalog for facilitator), which makes it feel extra special that I should be writing about this month’s theme, Daloy or Flow. At the same time, I guess you could say it’s this same “specialness” that made it harder for me to find my flow in writing this month’s newsletter.
And because I think of flow as not something we induce, but something we unblock, what I’d really like to talk about here are things that help me to unblock flow in writing this newsletter. Meta, I know. :D
You can’t push a stream to flow, but if you remove the blockages, it will flow by itself.
- Adam Kahane, Facilitating Breakthrough
Show up and be present
It starts with this simple task, but simple isn’t always easy.
I think what made it challenging for me to find my flow in writing this month’s newsletter was just plain not taking the time to sit and be fully present with my thoughts and feelings. Sure, I can chalk it up to being a busy month of events and travel, but as writer Anne Lammott might say, “stop not writing”.
More than that being an admonition to stop with the excuses or procrastination, I see Lammott’s words more as an invitation to show up and really be present for my writing, or whatever craft applies to you in your “creative practice”.
When I took an intentional moment to quiet my thoughts from the other busy-ness-es of life, from the replaying of past events and from my concerns about future things, when I came more mindfully present in the here and now, I could find my flow for my writing.
Follow curiosity and explore possibility
I thought this point was about breaking the rules, but it isn’t about breaking the rules for rule-breaking’s sake. A lot of times we find a lot of creative flow when bound by certain parameters. Like water, sometimes creativity needs a bit of a container. And in our everyday lives, our creative expression needs to fall within certain boundaries of time, space and the resources we have.
And yet, within those parameters, we can find spaces for possibility. What if I didn’t really follow the same structure I had before? Could I reach my same goal through a different process?
In this state of finding flow, I’ve found it more helpful to follow that curiosity to a certain extent, rather than be so rigid with one particular way.
Let go of expectations and enjoy the process
Again, sounds simple, but it isn’t always easy. In many cases, our blocks are self-imposed — our concerns with perfection or looking like a noob1. But what if we allowed ourselves to be more fluid like water? And to just flow through the process instead of being focused on the outcome?2
While an end goal is not a bad thing to have, it can impede flow when we can’t quite envision how to get there. But often, what we need to do is flow from one stream to the next, and trust that is we keep flowing with this stream, we will get to where we’re going.
When I let go of how things should be, I could enjoy what they could be.
What does flow look like for you?
daloy
v. to flow: umagos, dumaloy, tumulo
n. stream, flow of liquid, running water: agos, daloy
Can also be used as: daloy ng kuryente (electric current), daloy ng trapiko (traffic flow), daloy ng panahon (flow of time), daloy ng kamalayan (stream of consciousness)
Halimbawa: Sa daloy ng panahon, may mga nakalimutan ako tungkol sa sarili ko. Ngunit lulutang din ito muli sa pagpansin ng daloy ng kamalayan.
If we notice the qualities of water in all its forms, it is graceful yet formidable, essential yet ever-changing, life-giving and taking-away. It adapts to its environment, the temperature, to its container. At the same time, it also has the capacity to change landscapes with changing tides, to make us walk, swim or surf in the direction of its choosing.
To me that speaks about presence.
And in the field of psychology, flow is about presence, that full engagement in the here and now, with curiosity and joy, but also with challenge and growth.
And for me, finding flow is about showing up and letting go. The below image captures some of the essence of this newsletter for me.
I’ve shown up to do the work, I’ve let go of the words in my head and put them on my screen. And the final letting go is just hitting publish and send, with a bit of anxiety perhaps, but with more joy than anything else, because I showed up, expressed myself, and got it out of my head and out of my system. 😊
How might flow allow you live your days more meaningfully?
Sa patuloy na pagdaloy,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo @jenhorn_
In other news, check out our @ugnayancards Instagram for more immediate updates on our upcoming events. Like this one on Finding Creative Flow with Arts & Design Collective Dumaguete this February.
We’ve also announced special rates for folks in the education and non-profit sectors, and you can learn more about why we chose to that via this Instagram post.
It’s uncomfortable to try new things, because learning new things likely means having to suck at it first. I write more about holding space for imperfection in this Pagbubuo post.